


tell me baby where did you go (you were here just a moment ago)

by janie_tangerine



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coma, Eventual Fluff, Hospitals, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Robb Stark is a Gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 04:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14096973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janie_tangerine/pseuds/janie_tangerine
Summary: “You know,” Theon says as he sits down in the plastic hospital chair next to the bed, trying to keep his voice tone even - he’s not going to have a crying fit in front of the daughter of the other guy in the room -, “I wish I could be angry that you had to go and land yourself here. Then I think about why you did it and just - it’s exactly the kind of dumbass thing you would end up doing and I’d be an hypocrite if I was angry. Just - don’t make me come here every other day for more than a week, all right? This chair is fucking uncomfortable. And you know I hate hospitals.”Not that Robb is hearing him, because if all that crap about people hearing you in a coma is true Theon would be very much surprised, but - it’s better than just staring.





	tell me baby where did you go (you were here just a moment ago)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a tumblr meme where you'd write fic from a line prompt. Someone wanted throbb + "You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you" and this was waaay too long for the ficlets dump so here you go, have some angst with the obligatory end fluff.
> 
> As usual, nothing belongs to me and the title is from Springsteen, everyone is ABSOLUTELY surprised I'm sure. Also I'm 100% sure this is NOT scientifically or medically correct but guys bear with me I needed the movie-like solution. /o\

“You know,” Theon says as he sits down in the plastic hospital chair next to the bed, trying to keep his voice tone even - he’s  _not_  going to have a crying fit in front of the daughter of the other guy in the room -, “I wish I could be angry that you had to go and land yourself here. Then I think about  _why_  you did it and just - it’s exactly the kind of dumbass thing  _you_  would end up doing and I’d be an hypocrite if I was angry. Just - don’t make me come here every other day for more than a week, all right? This chair is fucking uncomfortable. And you know I hate hospitals.”

Not that Robb is hearing him, because if all that crap about people hearing you in a coma is true Theon would be very much surprised, but - it’s better than just staring.

Then again, Robb’s hooked to a machine because he had managed to convince one of the kids at the family court he’s a lawyer at to  _not_  take the rap for some dumbass crime his older (and of age) brother committed and the family members weren’t too happy about it. Knowing that Robb broke two noses out of six before they  _punched him into a coma_  is a small consolation, but he can’t even be angry. After all wasn’t it the same thing when Robb for some reason didn’t give a damn about who Theon’s own relatives were back when they were kids? Theon can barely bring himself to look at him, his face is all bruises, swollen lips and black eyes, but that’s not the problem.

The doctor said it wasn’t  _irreversible_ , in theory. That if he woke up before some four, five, six months it wouldn’t risk turning into being irreversible.

Theon really hopes it doesn’t come to that and stays silent until the nurse tells him visiting hours are over.

–

“You promised you’d be there at my dissertation,” Theon tells Robb a month later. He’s come here every other day - not in the afternoon hours, that’s when Robb’s family visits and he’s not sure he wants to blurt this kind of thing in front of them. By now, he’s on half-friendly terms with the sister of the other patient, who’s been in this room for half a year now, so he doesn’t particularly mind if she hears him. “Well, I have the date. It’s June 16th. It’s February now. I’ll forgive you if you miss my birthday, but I’m not going to be that lenient with you if you don’t come. Not when I wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t convinced me I should try in the first place, okay? By the way, that kid you’re here for? He dropped by yesterday. Said he’s gone back to school and that he might even not lose the year now. I don’t know, guess you might have wanted to hear that.”

At least Robb’s face isn’t that horrid shade of purple anymore. Now you can still see bruises, but they’re all fading. He might have a scar where his bottom lip got split, but it’s nothing.

If only he’d just wake up already.

–

“Okay then, since you won’t entertain me with your brilliant conversation I guess I’ll just work on this. You wouldn’t want me slacking off, I guess,” Theon sighs as he opens up his laptop. The chair is still uncomfortable, Robb is still in a coma and and his dissertation won’t revise itself - at least he just has to triple check the notes and so on but the major part of it is done and professor Baratheon  _even_  sent it back with just four minor edits when Theon gave him the latest draft, he’s more or less confident that it makes some sort of sense.

“Can I ask what that’s about?”

Theon turns his chair to the left where Jeyne is sitting - her dad still hasn’t woken up yet and from what Theon knows she’s the only one in the family who still comes here. Her mother has stopped months ago and sometimes they commiserate about having terrible families together - better than just sitting in silence.

“My dissertation? Experimental mathematics,” he says. “It’s, uh, put in simple terms -”

She laughs and shakes his head. “It’s okay, you don’t need to even try it. I was terrible at math, I wouldn’t probably understand a word. I mean, I studied history for a reason. So, you’re almost done?”

He shrugs. “Well, I have to revise a few technical things but I am.”

“You don’t sound that happy.”

Yeah, how about that. “It’s just - I’d have never gotten this far if  _he_  hadn’t convinced me I had it in me to do it. And now I don’t even know if he’s going to see me defend it or not, and - I guess I just never considered that it couldn’t be the case.”

Jeyne puts a hand on his arm. “Well, he sounds like a great guy. And you have how long, three months and a half before the defense? Who knows. He might wake up yet.”

She says it with the tone of someone who knows she probably won’t be as lucky. Theon says nothing and puts a hand over hers.

–

“Your mom is getting desperate, but I guess you might have noticed that already. And I handed the thesis in - Baratheon says there’s nothing more to edit. Guess you did tell me at some point that I was worrying too much. Just - just come back. Can you even spend this long  _sleeping_? Not that you ever were a morning person but come on. It’s been too long even for you.”

–

“Right, I guess the dissertation ultimatum wasn’t enough.  _Fine_ , Stark, I just want to warn you that if you don’t wake up before April 23rd you’re going to miss some episode of Grey’s Anatomy that everyone is in a hype about for some reason and you can  _forget_  I’ll watch that crappy show just to tell you what you missed. Just a warning.”

–

“Whatever, you bastard, you owe me. I mean, it’s not that I  _watched_  that show, fuck, how isn’t it dubbed a telenovela already for all that bloody  _drama_ , but I also had to sit through forty minutes of - ah well, I guess telling you who died isn’t going to wake you up, I guess, but I  _didn’t_  need that. I so fucking didn’t need that. Don’t you fucking dare do the same to me, you understand?”

–

“Your  _father_  just came up to me saying he’s willing to drive me to the dissertation defense since even if you graced us with your presence now you probably wouldn’t be able to drive for a while. I might have almost cried in front of him,  _that’s_ how bad this situation is getting. Listen, everyone misses you, you  _know_  that, just - just come back, all right?”

–

“This is getting ridiculous. Now the nurse who throws me out of the room when visiting hours are over looks at me like she’s sorry I don’t have spouse benefits or something. I never asked for that, you know.”

–

The calendar is reading June 16th when said nurse lets him in even if it’s not visiting time, but when he tells her why he couldn’t make it in the afternoon her expression turns soft and she says she’ll make an exception.

Theon loosens his tie and sits down in that fucking uncomfortable chair.

He also reaches out and grabs Robb’s hand, not that it’s responsive at all, but still.

“Fuck you,” he mutters. “You didn’t come after all. Your family did, though. I mean, I thought your dad would drop me there but then he showed up with the entire gang and said that they’d stay, and Asha showed up too even if she said she couldn’t, and - it went well, by the way. They’re publishing it. Baratheon  _even_  didn’t grit his teeth more than three times during the entire thing. And then I went back home and - you know, I had plans. If it went well - I thought I’d have gone and asked you if you wanted to make it official. Or something. And I can’t do that now, can I, and when I was home before I ended up using your aftershave by mistake and now I feel like complete shit and - listen, Robb, let’s be real, I kept it together for this long but you need to wake the fuck up now, okay? I can’t do this without you, and with  _this_  I mean - I just can’t, and I’m nowhere near fucking ready to pull that plug and neither is anyone related to you. How about you stop stalling and -”

He’d have gone on, but then he hears a sound coming from the monitor.

For a moment he feels pure dread, but then he looks at it and whatever the hell it is, there’s a green light going on and off, and it’s not red, so - so maybe it’s not bad news.

“Robb?” He asks, barely audible, and nothing happens for another long minute. Everything is silent except for the green light beeping.

And then he can swear that Robb’s fingers might have gripped his.

Theon stands up and calls for the nurse. He’s not going to jeopardize anything if it might mean fucking this up because he couldn’t call a doctor just to have a  _moment_.

Two hours later the doctor tells him that  _something_  finally happened, cerebral activity is going back to normal or at least Theon thinks that’s what he meant. He’s too tired and sleep deprived to make sense of medical jargon.

And then -

“He’s probably going to wake up at some point between now and tomorrow morning. I’ll warn the family but I guess you can stay if you want.”

Theon goes back to his uncomfortable chair.

He sits down, drinks the crappy coffee he got at the hospital machine, stands up again, throws it away.

And when he turns back to the bed Robb is looking up at him.

For a moment he thinks  _what if he doesn’t remember anything_ or whatever (he hopes it’s something he’s considering just because he saw too many movies). Then.

“What day is it?” Robb croaks.

“… June seventeenth,” Theon replies, sitting at the edge of the bed.

“Ah, fuck, I’m a day late, am I not?”

“… wait, what, you  _heard_  me?”

“All the time,” Robb croaks again, his palm turned upward. Theon reaches out and twines their fingers together. “Just - two things.” He sounds like speaking is hurting him, and well, he hasn’t talked out loud for five months, Theon guesses it would. He knows he should call the doctor, he  _knows_ , but -

“I knew that. And -  _yes_.”

“Wait,  _yes_?”

“You said you wanted to  _make it official,”_  Robb says so low Theon can barely hear it.

–

When he goes to call the doctor again, a few minutes later, he’s really glad no one points out that he’s obviously been crying. Good thing that right now he couldn’t care less.

 

End.


End file.
